


renegade blue

by idlesong



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, M/M, Sirens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:29:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27171790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idlesong/pseuds/idlesong
Summary: By the shore of a purple sea, Kun seeks refuge from the persistent reminders of his misery. Ten offers him a way out.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 14
Kudos: 46
Collections: NCT Spookfest 2020





	renegade blue

**Author's Note:**

> written for the theme ~creature feature~ as part of NCT spookfest 2020!

The water crashes periodically onto the shore and Kun stops counting the seconds between them. If his mind was given the wings of an albatross it would still stay where it is, made of lead and impassible in its conduct. His insomnia piles in argument against the islands made of crystals out on sea, isolated and eroding like him. The red sand crunches under his feet, shoes set aside to the edge of the ground where it stopped being malleable.

No place is as peaceful at night. Kun sits with his knees to his chest and inhales all the reminders of nature’s work. If his consciousness wouldn’t thrum so close to the inside of his forehead he could better appreciate the moment. Plug his ears with beeswax and he would still beg for a companion.

He inches close enough to feel how the purple water tugs at his feet. It slips around his ankles, fizzy against his skin, soaking the cuffs of his pants in seltzer. He keeps his eyes closed until his toes go numb.

Lonely at this time of day, but hardly a change. Kun never wants for anything beyond reason. The wind combs through his hair and he feels like it’s meant to be.

A faint melody begins to accompany the wind and waves. Imagined, it seems initially, but it grows louder even when his eyes reveal themselves to reality. The voice whistles close to the water and croons a song eerily familiar.

Kun heard it in his dreams as a child, the tune that haunted his otherwise mundane retellings of the world. He used to hum it in the mornings until he forgot it again. The voice wraps around his limbs and stills him in place. Any intention of leaving goes quiet as the song gets closer.

A figure walks along the shoreline, dressed in all white, and his voice passes into Kun’s ears like fluid. His song pours into his head and fills it with a comforting lull. It’s even more unsettling now that Kun can attribute to the melody to something real, and the man is just an arm’s length away. He draws the waves even closer and Kun feels as though they’ve already met.

Proximity offers the observation that his clothes are drenched. Kun hesitates letting his stare persist at the fabric’s cling to the man’s chest, the ferocious grip on his shoulders and limbs. Kun’s neck is craned as far back as it can in simple awe.

Once it rained for a hundred days straight and looking at this man feels like witnessing that endless downpour, the relentless violence of nature’s will. He says hello and Kun’s heart feels torrential.

He sits down next to Kun, legs extended and leaning back onto his sandy palms. His gaze towards the sea is forlorn. Kun knows little else better than how to identify sadness. It’s recognizable, could be held in his hands to be tossed in the air like a heavy balloon.

“I’m Ten.”

“Kun,” and he can suddenly see the balloon above him, that slow but inevitable descent. Weighed down feeling, constricting his chest, but now distributed between them. It doesn’t ease the burden of being a fugitive.

The lightning bugs follow him everywhere when they’re lit, in their nature to seek out the gloomiest spaces to make them bright. They’ve found him at last tonight, flickering multicoloured about his head and he feels mortified. He can run to any place and the lightning bugs trail behind, good-intentioned in their pursuit but pointing to him as the outsider.

Even to a familiar stranger they tell Ten all he needs to know. The lightning bugs sense the darkness kept encased in Kun’s ribcage.

He suspends his head in discomfort. He only wants them to leave him alone. Every time he gets caught in their swarm he’s reminded of everything he tries to forget. The infestation of his first childhood home saw it nearly go up in flames.

Even with his eyes closed he can see the movement of the lights and it always becomes too much until he runs away again. But today they aren’t as eager, at least not to see him. They mumble their giddy song in imperfect circles around Ten, emboldened and glowing.

Kun watches the insects dance with fascination. One lands on the back of Ten’s hand, brought close to his face, and turns violet. Ten smiles at it and it goes dim.

“How did you do that?” Kun asks.

Ten has a dead calm on his face when he looks back at him. The lightning bugs encircling him shut off one by one and fly away.

“It’s nothing special,” Ten says, expression guarded by a taciturn smile.

Kun’s breath catches. He would need to be bound to the mast to hold himself back. Any slight movement forward is precipitated by Ten’s lean back. The sound of his voice leaves Kun’s heart throbbing to hear more. The short distance between them suddenly seems too far.

“If I tell you, will you help me?” Ten still wears a secret on his lips.

Without saying it all the risk of the choice is palpable. Whoever Ten is, he couldn’t be like him, Kun thinks with trepidation. The pining of his heart, the longing to know _more_ , grows stronger the longer he stays. He would be safer to kick his feet and froth the water lavender as he was dragged into the sea.

“I know it all,” Ten then says. “Will you help me then?”

“Help you with what?” Kun doesn’t believe his own hesitance. He’s already lost his defence. Ten crawls toward him and Kun feels pressed to a cave wall, cursed to a prolonged homecoming.

“Don’t you also know how it feels to be lonely?” Ten whispers, his arms and legs caging Kun into the sand.

Kun knows loneliness as his only home. It holds him in a suffocating embrace, its nails digging into his shoulder blades and creating scars of sickly reminiscence. He’s wandered the world for a means to leave behind all of his memories.

“You’re the last one, aren’t you?”

That reminder again, in words this time instead of through the neat formations of those luminescent insects. He’s been given little else, but Kun thinks he deserves more than this.

“The last human?”

Another stab at his chest, only alleviated by the saccharine notes of Ten’s voice. At least the realities Kun hates to confront are articulated by a voice that he aches to hear.

“Yes.”

In the meantime Ten has lost his smile. He looks sympathetic, perhaps, his brows dipped into a sad expression. His hands rest on the sides of Kun’s shoulders now and Kun can’t recall the last time he felt someone else’s warmth. Ten still offers none.

“Do you want them to leave you alone?” Ten asks.

“I would rather they had no reason to follow me around.” Kun feels small under Ten’s gaze. Something in his mind screams at him that this must be terribly wrong.

“I can give you that too.” Ten’s voice takes on a weighted comfort now and it’s difficult to reconcile with the functional parts of Kun’s judgement, in refusal to cooperate with the rest of his body. “But I need you to tell me. Tell me that you need me.”

Kun tries to duck his head, but Ten catches the sides of his face in his hands. His eyes shine even without the light that departed from the world long ago. Any of Kun’s insurgent thoughts die in his throat from the heat of his skin. Perched in his lap, Ten has trapped Kun against the red sand.

“Last chance.” Ten’s face hovers close to his.

It’s a wrong turn. Kun is helpless. The sounds of the oncoming waves rush between his ears. He doesn’t know how to show himself civility any longer.

“I need you,” Kun says quietly.

“We were meant to be.” Ten’s jubilance manifests in a voice so sweet that it sweeps away any of Kun’s remaining resolve. “You’ll never be sad again.”

Despite himself, Kun smiles. He’s yet to understand but he’s glad to do something for anyone else. In all of his joy, Ten is even more enticing than before—he seems much brighter by the proof of Kun’s agreement.

“You’ve made me so happy,” Ten says, and Kun believes him. He can taste the delight on Ten’s lips when he pulls him close for a kiss.

It’s too revealing, how desperate Kun feels as he runs his hands along Ten’s frigid skin, trying to seek out some warmth through the soaked cotton. Ten senses it too, either through his promised omniscience or Kun’s frenzied touch.

Kun pants, his chest heaving with regulated yearning. Ten watches him carefully with unadulterated glee. When their mouths meet again, Ten uses his hand to lock Kun’s chin in place as he bites at his lip.

It’s unrecognizable at first, but then floods in at once. Kun’s body feels frozen, some sort of venom in his blood. He can make out Ten’s smile again through his blurry vision.

“Oh, sweet one,” Ten coos as Kun feels himself go inert, torso unfolding into Ten’s arms. “Such a pure heart, after all you’ve been through.”

Less familiar hands wrap around his wrists. His body turns into ice as it’s pulled into the water, wearing away at his consciousness as he barely makes out Ten’s silhouette begin to change shape. The world drops dead but Kun can still hear Ten’s voice, ringing through his head even submerged under water.

“I’ll have your heart first,” Ten promises him with a kiss to his cheek.

As Kun feels the rest of his will ebb away, he can hear Ten start to sing.

**Author's Note:**

> me, making a (self-imposed) deadline? in this economy?
> 
> as always thank you for reading! this was a bit out of my comfort zone in terms of genre but was still really fun to write. thanks to kerrie for the support and sprinting with me despite our wildly different timezones. <3
> 
> [twitter](http://twitter.com/idle_song) | [curiouscat](http://curiouscat.me/idlesong)


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